The Finkler Question Wins Man Booker

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The Man Booker prize has been awarded to Howard Jacobson for The Finkler Question.

Chair of Judges, Andrew Motion praised it as “a marvellous book: very funny, of course, but also very clever, very sad and very subtle. It is all that it seems to be and much more than it seems to be. A completely worthy winner of this great prize.”

Jacobson was certainly the outsider with punters preferring Tom McCarthy’s C. The Australian’s Pair of Ragged Claws was surprised by the decision, tweeting soon after “The Finkler Question would have been my last pick! Not on merit, just on gut feeling”.

Over at the Guardian book blog, Sarah Crown thought it was a worthy winner, calling the book a “mad, sad blend of high-wire comedy and genuine, honest-to-goodness grief - and the questions it asks about both - made it a whip-smart pleasure to read”.